Apology

Sorry if anyone missed me on NP-005 Ingleborough on Saturday. A lovely warm sunny day changed to frequent snow showers with powerful gusts of wind as I approached the summit. I found myself sitting behind a pile of rocks holding the mike in one hand and holding up the mast with the other, while snow covered the notepad and blew down the back of my neck. I elected to start with 2m FM, and worked sixteen stations in sixteen minutes, a record for me, but I was rapidly chilling and decided not to go on to 2m SSB or 5 megs as once the mast was down I was not confident I could get it up again!

Mike DSP said I must be mad, but as Terry Pratchet puts it in “Making Money”, “you get a lovely view from the point of no return”!

Sunday gave non-stop snow so we activated a pub and watched F1 while consuming Thwaites Bomber and roast beef!

My first time in the Three Peaks area for forty years, I had forgotten how lovely it is!

73

Brian G8ADD

In reply to G8ADD:

You didn’t miss anything on 5MHz as the sky was broken.
(Have a look at http://www.ips.gov.au/HF_Systems/3/5/2
Select 06/04/08 and then London Cadets, you can see how long the skip was around lunchtime.) I just managed 5 contacts before bailing. Sarah was too cold in the windchill (probably well below -10C) for me to attempt 80m.

Andy
MM0FMF

Sounds like a nice Sunday anyway Brian and thanks for the link Andy… very interesting. I use their site to look at the F2 plots but didn’t realise they had these as well.

The sky was somewhat “broken” wasn’t it!

73 Marc G0AZS

In reply to MM0FMF:
just tried looking at the web site, and got the following,

www.ips.gov.au
ERROR 404The URL that you requested, /HF_Systems/3/5/2 select 06/04/08 and then London Cadets, you can see how long the skip was around lunchtime. could not be found. This could be a typo, or the link refered to our OLD web site.

seems I can’t get it from my PDA, will have to have a look on the computer later,
Steve m0sgb

Which way did you go up Brian? I found the route from Chapel-le-Dale a real joy in comparison to the slog from Ingleton. I have (at least) two other routes yet to try.

Tom M1EYP

In reply to M1EYP:
From the report looks like he went up from Ingleton Tom, Did this one early in the year, I was out walking up Hollin Hall, it was cold and very white, will put the photo’s on my flickr.com/m0sgb
When I can sort my computer out,
Steve m0sgb

In reply to M0SGB:

The reflector ate the link on the 1st posting. I fixed it straight away but you must have tried it before I fixed it. Try now.

Andy
MM0FMF

In reply to MM0FMF:
Hi Andy

You really got me interested in their other tools. I was just looking at the Java based “Hourly Area Prediction” map based tool and it’s a great resource for activators planning frequency slots and EU coverage at various times of the day.

Thanks again… with apologies (no pun intended) to Brian for hijacking his post.

73 Marc G0AZS

In reply to M1EYP:
I went up from Clapham, walked up the nature trail and was astonished to see a patch of healthy flowering species rhododendrons surrounded by limestone, left the XYL to have a tour of Ingleborough cave, then followed the ravine (with a rest to admire the sports climbers!) thence by Gaping Gill and up the rock staircase to the south summit. A longer route than the alternatives, I think and judging by the map, but full of interest all the way! Next time I hope I am fit enough (and weather blessed enough!) to come down the other side and bag Whernside, too!

73

Brian G8ADD

In reply to G8ADD:
That’s definitely the most interesting route of the 5 i’ve done, Brian. There is also an engineering feature between the end of the nature trail and the entrance to Ingleborough cave. A 'Clapper Valve Pump’or ram pump. It only has 2 moving parts and works due to the difference between Static and Dynamic pressure in the flow of water. You may have heard it ? The other delight of this route is the Cafe at the cave on the descent - Hot drinks in winter and Cold Ices in summer. The seeds for the plants in the cliff side on the far side of the lake were collected by Reginald Farrer and were alledgedly planted in the rock by means of a shotgun.

Nice to work you,you sounded very cold :slight_smile:

Roger G4OWG

In reply to MM0FMF:

Andy,

Possibly of even more relevance try http://www.ips.gov.au/HF_Systems/7/1/9
select “Amateur” , put in your own location - I used Scotland 57(N) and -3 (W) for lat and long and it gives you a local prediction for the ham bands - you need to allow pop-ups and Java for it to work. I could play for hours with this toy!

Barry GM4TOE

In reply to GM4TOE:
Yes Barry I was going nuts with these tools yesterday!

If you’re 5 MHz user, don’t forget to change the frequencies to accommodate that. I was using 1850, 3550, 5300, 7050, 10120 and 14060 in the boxes.

Have fun… Marc G0AZS

In reply to G0AZS:

Apologies to Brian for continuing the thread hijack!

It’s a fantastic site. I’ve played with it for hours and hours in the past. And best of all it’s free. I was considering approaching them and asking if they would do a LAMP chart like the one they have for London Cadets but do it based on somewhere like Perth or Stirling. That should do as a prediction base for all the GM activators.

Andy
MM0FMF